Friends gets $100m farewell

You'll have read about the finale of Friends, which was broadcast in America last Thursday and will come soon to Britain.

It inspired blanket media coverage of a kind rarely seen and its broadcaster relied on its "watercooler effect" to charge eyebrow-raising prices for the commercial breaks - $2m on average for a 30-second slot. NBC took almost $100m in advertising for its primetime and late night programming on May 6, most of it related to Friends.

Such strong demand for placement in farewell programmes - previous examples being Frasier and Seinfeld - is regularly cited as evidence of the continuing power of big-event television.

The trouble is, such events are likely to become rarer, as more cable and satellite services become available to more households, and viewers switch over to sample the alternatives. A portent was provided by the recent finale of Sex and the City.

It was broadcast by the pay-cable network HBO, which has far fewer viewers than a free network such as NBC. But the advertiser and media farewell for Sex and the City was almost as fervent as that accorded to the Friends sextet.